It is impossible to mention Skyline Dog Fanciers of San Mateo County without first mentioning Responsible Dog Breeders of San Mateo County as that is where this group got its start.
On October 25, 1990 the Peninsula Humane Society (PHS) held a news conference to announce that they had asked the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors to introduce an Ordinance that would protect the County's pets.
That Ordinance was to "stop all purposeful breeding of dogs and cats until there was zero pet overpopulation." The evening broadcast showed an adorable shaggy little dog being euthanized, and the claim that over 10,000 dogs and cats were being killed annually and until there were no unwanted pets in this County they intended to stop breeders from breeding more puppies and kittens. Like anything in that has to do with puppies and kittens the sadness this little piece generated and caught on like wildfire. Soon it was being rebroadcast nationally, and by morning the print media had it plastered all over their front pages.
That morning the phones were ringing around San Mateo County and both Tim Mathiesen (Nebriowa Pembroke Welsh Corgis) and Jim Boso (Glengloamin West Highland White Terriers) called Betty-Anne Stenmark (King's Mtn. Dandie Dinmont Terriers) to ask what she thought should be done to combat this. That morning a group was formed and called itself Responsible Dog Breeders of San Mateo County (RDB/SMC) as it was breeding that was at the heart of the issue.
RDB/SMC became a significant presence in then County and turned out hundreds of purebred dog fanciers at the 3 Public Hearings held that Fall. Many of the RDB/SMC appeared on television, were interviewed by the press, and our brilliant Doggy Picket Line at the 2nd Hearing made the 6 o'clock news! Asked if we could keep it in place for the evening news we chorused, "You bet!" Photos from the picket line ended up in newspapers across the country and as far away as the Boston Herald. In the end the Ordinance passed but before it was implemented it was turned over to a Task Force and RDB/SMC members served on those Committees.
It took the Task Force five months to do its work and in that time the politics on the Board of Supervisors changed. In fact, to our advantage, both Tom Nolan (who's idea this Ordinance had been) and Anna Eshoo were both running in the congressional primaries and wanted to separate themselves from each other; this issue was one of those places of separation.
Eventually the parties and lawyers came to an agreed solution that would be acceptable to all. The Ordinance essentially would read, "There would be mandatory spay and neuter for all pets in San Mateo County except if you didn't wanna, you didn't haffta." It was important to Tom Nolan that the "M" word be left in the language, "mandatory," but we could have all the exceptions we wanted.
In the years since this ill-conceived Ordinance was first introduced much has happened across the Nation to mobilize better education of pet owners and responsible pet ownership, and promoting the spaying and neutering of the family pet. The American Kennel Club now has a whole Department that promotes better pet ownership practices. Ordinances like San Mateo's continue to spring up around the country but because of the work done here most of the copy cat laws have been rewritten and like San Mateo County, the Sport of purebred dogs has been left "intact".
The members of RDB/SMC fought a war together and survived, all becoming close friends. Meetings had become too much fun and it was decided we should become an all breed dog club to promote the Sport of Purebred Dogs in San Mateo County. We renamed ourselves Skyline Dog Fanciers of San Mateo County. Up until this time there had not been an all breed dog club in the county that anyone could join as the San Mateo Kennel Club was a proprietary club, the owners living in the East Bay.
Skyline started holding all breed fun matches, then the name was AKC approved and the club received recognition and approval to hold Plan B-OB Matches and finally Plan A-OA Matches, the last step towards full recognition.
Skyline Dog Fanciers of San Mateo County was fully recognized and licensed by AKC in 1995.
THE BEGINNING
